Derby Litchurch Lane Works (formerly Derby Carriage and Wagon Works) is a railway rolling stock factory in Derby, England. It was opened in the 19th century by the Midland Railway. The plant has produced rolling stock under the ownership of the Midland Railway. It is now owned by Alstom.
History
Midland Railway (1876–1923)
Railway building began at Derby Works in 1840, when the North Midland Railway, the Midland Counties Railway and the Birmingham and Derby Railway set up engine sheds as part of their Tri Junct Station. When the three merged in 1844 to form the Midland Railway its first Locomotive and Carriage Superintendent Matthew Kirtley set out to organise their activities and persuaded the directors to build their own rolling stock, rather than buying it in (see Derby Works).
By the 1860s, the works had expanded to such an extent that he was considering reorganising it and, in 1873, it separated into the Midland Railway Locomotive Works, known locally as "The Loco", and a new Carriage and Wagon Works further south, off Litchurch Lane, locally known as the "Carriage and Wagon". This was completed by his successor Samuel Waite Johnson, under the control of Thomas Gethin Clayton The Derby Carriage and Wagon works were built in 1876.
The carriages of the time were generally less than long but, possibly because the Midland had just taken delivery of its first Pullman car long, Clayton had the foresight to design the works to deal with vehicles up to . This meant, for instance, that the traversers at the end of each shed were still in use a century later.
Production had begun in 1873, at the original loco works, of carriages from kits supplied by the Pullman Company of Detroit in United States. These were followed by Clayton's own design of coaches, which incorporated both first- and third-class accommodation, and ran on four- or six-wheeled bogies. Initially claret or dark red, with dark green locomotives, the livery of both was changed to the well-known crimson in 1883. Five layers of undercoat were used, followed by a top coat and three coats of varnish.
A six-wheeled coach built in 1885 is in the National Railway Museum. In 1879, the first bogie coaches were built for the Midland's line to Glasgow over its newly opened Settle-Carlisle line. Clayton's successor in 1903 was David Bain., the works building sleeping cars and dining coaches. In 1904 two steam motor-carriages were fitted out for the Morecambe-Heysham service.
Ten- and twelve-ton wagons were produced in quantity, starting with a set of components in the morning, each would be assembled for painting by the end of the day. Reid and E.J.H.Lemon studied American mass production methods and introduced them around 1919, raising output to 200 wagons and ten coaches a week. The sawmill was recognised as the most modern and largest in Europe, with over of timber being seasoned, of nearly 60 different varieties, from pine to lignum vitae.
In 1914 the works turned to producing supplies for the army of World War I, building ambulance trains and army wagons, plus parts for rifles.
London, Midland and Scottish Railway (1923-1948) In 1923, the Midland Railway became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, and W. R. Reid was appointed Carriage & Wagon Superintendent. Together with the LNWR's Wolverton works, new coaches were built to the Midland design, corridor coaches with doors to each compartment - the so-called "all-doors". These were still in use until nearly 1960, particularly on the Liverpool and Newcastle to Bristol expresses.
Around 1929, the compartment doors, however, were replaced by two fixed lights, and later with single large windows. All-wood construction gave way to steel panels. In the next decade the Works Superintendent, Ernest Pugson, realised the potential of the new technology of metallic arc welding, replacing many forged and cast components. He introduced the first composite welded steel/timber bodies with standardised jig-built components. The first open carriages, referred to as "vestibule coaches", also appeared. From 1933, roofs were of steel rather than wood, with a simplified livery and a smoother external appearance, and, at the end of the 1930s all-welded steel vehicles were built for the Liverpool and Southport electric service, the Class 502.
During World War II, Derby pioneered aeroplane wing production methods, by 1945 having produced over 4,000. With the loco works, wings and fuselages were repaired and sent to a private contractor at Nottingham for assembly, initially of Hampden bombers but later of other aircraft including Lancasters.